The Mystery of the Catacombs in Manhattan

This really is a history mystery, and I'm hoping that someone will be able to confirm or deny this (actually, I hope that it is true).

Back when Frozen Charlotte (my NaNoWriMo mystery) was in a previous incarnation as The Black Mirror (which draft will someday become the second in the Eleanor Grey detective series, I hope) I did a lot of research into New York's underground places - not just the subways and secret passages under the street, but also hidden rooms (as in the Seabury Tredwell house) and other odd semi-subterranean and secret places. Julia Solis' New York Underground is a superb resource, by the way, as is the non-New-York but fascinating zine, Infiltration.

Anyway - I wanted to have Eleanor searching for a clue down in some catacombs (underground burial galleries and passageways) under an old church. Now, most sources I've found do not say anything about their being catacombs in New York City. However, in a 1939 book called Here Is New York by Helen Worden, she writes:

Ghosts might also flit through the catacombs beneath the Church of the Holy Apostles, at Twenty-Eighth Street and Ninth Avenue. The passageway which forms a labyrinthlike network of underground chambers was once the repository for coffins. Years ago bodies awaiting burial were kept there. They say there are about seven different exits from those spooky walks.

The cornerstone of Holy Apostles was laid in 1846 and the building was completed two years later. The church is a designated New York Landmark; and what the NYC Architecture site calls its "ambiance of a quaint country chapel" and differing architectural styles make it a charming addition to its Chelsea neighborhood.

I did a search for other mentions of the catacombs (and the seven different exits) but (so far) have not found any corroboration. However, Worden tends to be pretty accurate in her New York lore, and knew a lot of people interested in old New York so I would imagine there is something to this. For now, I have created a fictional NYC church based on Holy Apostles - with catacombs.

Image of the church from NYC Architecture. More pictures of Holy Apostles and its Chelsea surroundings over here at the Bridge and Tunnel Club. And see here also at NYC AGO (a historic church organ site primarily).

Amazing Inventions From 1909

This has nothing to do with Brooklyn or mysteries. There will be more of that next week but too much of the same thing makes even someone very interested in, just for example, Brooklyn and mysteries (i.e. me) just a little bit - bored! And it's Friday, which means it is time for something fun and amusing.

So here is something fun from the April 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics. Take a look at some of the cutting-edge inventions that were in the news! (You can see the big version of the inventions page over here at Google Books, bu the way). For example:

-The Dog Sweater - I had no idea it was around this early, did you?

-The Violin with Horn Attachment - just sling a drum around your neck and you can be a one man or one woman band.

-A special telephone receiver for long boring calls - looks like modern headphones.

- Lock up those milk bottles in case you have "thieving cats' or "tramps" around early in the morning.

-Strengthen your finger muscles by wearing a leather harness fitted with iron rods. Better lock up the milk bottles before putting this on, though.

-Anti-Snoring device, which is still made, I think. Even back in 1909, scientific types were being inspired in the middle of the night by snoring spouses, to come up with this.

-And to feel extra healthy in the morning even if you are being kept awake by snoring - the Electrically Vibrated Bed, with "spring legs" and a motor at the foot.

-Lastly, an invention that we know was not new in 1909 - that Sunshade Hat, which had been around since the 1880s, as you can see over here.

The Coney Island Bowery

The Bowery at Coney Island was a plank street laid out in 1882 by George C. Tilyou, one of the pioneer developers of Coney Island as a summer resort and amusement complex. It was named for the Bowery, the oldest street in Manhattan - which by the 1880s had a reputation as a rather shady place lined with cheap amusements, saloons and flophouses.

Originally a little alleyway between larger streets running down to the sea, the Coney Island Bowery was enhanced by the wooden planking and gave it a new importance. Tilyou's idea was to give people  a quick route past the amusement places which would lead them straight to the Tilyous' Surf Theater.

Many dance halls, saloons and cheap stands which sprouted up on either side, hoping to benefit from the crowds of pedestrians using the walk. The Bowery soon became the center of Coney Island amusement, often photographed and the subject of penny postcards.

The Stauch's sign in this 1907 photo advertises a popular restaurant, which had a ballroom and cigar store in the same building, which had been opened in 1904. They served seafood, steaks, a variety of pickles and vegetables, and ice cream for dessert. You could have frankfurters with potato salad for 30 cents, but it cost 10 cents extra to have Imported Frankfurters. The menu is here and it is lots of fun to read over, as old menus usually are.

The magnificent building pictured at right is Strauch's, from the front of the 1906 menu.

In the near future (after a couple of medical ads I've found that I want to write about) we'll look at the differences between Sea Gate, West Brighton, Brighton beach and Manhattan Beach, which are all technically part of the larger area of Coney Island - but very different in character.

At this point in NaNoWriMo, my heroine/detective has - in the midst of trying to solve a murder at Coney Island -  inherited a cottage at Manhattan Beach (the wealthier, more sedate end of the island) - I might have her inherit property further inland in the second draft, depending on various plot issues.

For some time, I've had an image of Eleanor (my amateur detective) riding around on the railway and taking ferries, looking into things and snooping, really moving around New York in 1896. She could commute down to Coney (this takes place over the winter, because I like beach resorts off-season). It was quite easy to get down to Coney Island from anywhere in New York by 1896 - and in a future post I'll remind myself - and tell you -  how she would have done that.

The photograph is from Staley's Views of Coney Island (1907). Picture of Stauch's restaurant from a 1906 menu at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.